We are wonderfully made

Spent about 8 hours in processing those jars of salsa yesterday.  Working up the vegetables, standing in one place getting them all chopped up.  It takes time and energy, using muscles that I haven’t used that long in a while.  Having to deal with my current health issues didn’t help much.

I thought when I went to bed that I would sleep all the way through – my body had a different objective, it was sore and if it was going to hurt, it wanted to make sure my mind and brain was aware of it.  I got a couple hours of sleep.

Working with Teresa last year we learned some tricks to make things go quicker, and I am grateful for those lessons.  Our 40” stove is great for canning and the canning element works well.  However, due to the sizes of the canners we can only put one canner on the stove at a time – however, when we took the extension classes they, in addition to the kitchen stoves, they were also using butane burners and they work well.

So, we have one canner on the stove, and one on a butane burner – while it doesn’t cut time in half, it comes pretty close.  Carla helped with some of the clean-up and she harvested all the veggies – but she had other things she needed to do so I did most of the canning by myself. 

It goes much faster if there are two working.  Teresa and Deed did almost the same amount of jars in half the time.  The introduction of the replacement food processor helped immensely – what took me over an hour to chop by hand, I was able to duplicate with the rest of the material in a tenth of the time. 

As I spend time with God this morning, in devotionals, reading God’s Word and prayer a re-occurring theme is playing out:  God knows me, He cares for me, He knows everything about me and He still loves me.  He wants to direct my life, I have but to open up my life to Him, embrace Him and follow His Holy Spirit.

Psalm 139:1- 4  O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

² Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
³ Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

There are times I have gone to God in shame for the things I have either done, or neglected to do.  There are times I try to hide such things from Him – I know it is impossible, but I have tried none the less. 

During those times I know I have fallen away from Him and it was my fault, not His. 

When I come to the realization that when I have sinned, I cannot hide it, that He knows not only the sin, but where my heart was, where my mind was – and while He detests those sins and those thoughts, He still loves me and wants to bring me back in favor with Him.

Verse 14  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

He has made us in His image.  As we look at any part of our body how can we deny the intricacies of His creation, the total involvement of all parts of our body to allow us to live our life here on earth?  

Having created us, He knows us; He understands those complexities in ways we will never fully appreciate.  Each of us have similar characteristics, yet we are also very different.  God understands that and treats us, not as a ‘group’ but as individuals.  He understands us, not just our body, but our mental, psychological and spiritual being.

When we look at our parents, our brothers and sisters – not to mention our uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents, we can see likenesses – but we are different.  My brothers and I have different features, different skills – some are close to being the same, but not exactly. 

Yet, our body works the same in all cases.  When God made Adam, he was perfect; as was Eve when she was created – however, sin disturbed that perfect body.  Instead of perfect we now have things in our system that cause problems. 

YET, the basic body, the heart, lungs, circulatory system, brain, legs, arms, etc. are much the same as when God created Adam.  Our basic image is that of Adam and therefore that of God. 

As scientists learn more about how the body functions and how they can bring their knowledge to help the body heal, they realize there is more to it than they thought and the more they search the more they find how complex He has made us.  

God knows every part of us, our physical body, our mind and our soul.  Nothing is hidden from Him.

Verses 23-24   Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
²⁴ And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Sometimes we, ourselves, have hidden sin so deeply within ourselves that we forget it is there, but it impacts the way we relate with God and with others. 

We may be in denial, we may claim that it is ‘not really sins’ but none the less these things separate us from the Holiness God wants of us.

If we truly wish to follow Him, obey Him and do His will then we must search these sins out and ask for forgiveness – the most effective way we can do that is to ask Him to do it for us.  Then when He finds them and pricks our conscience to get rid of them, we must do so.

Philippians 3:13-14  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We will be battling the forces of satan every day we are on this earth.  I can remember listening to a sermon one time and thinking this does not apply to me, I am above that kind of sinning. 

It wasn’t but within a few days I was faced with the temptation and without even thinking about it I succumbed – and did the very thing I thought I was above doing. 

We must never think we have arrived and have nothing to worry about, that satan cannot bring us down to his level.  Such self-righteousness will lead to our downfall very quickly. 

We must always strive to live our life, consciously live our life, with a focus on God and His righteousness, not ours. 

Fortunately we do not have to do that all by ourselves; we have the Holy Spirit of God to help us.

Isaiah 48:17  Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

He promises to teach and lead us, but we have to be willing to follow Him.  It is our decision, our choice.  He is waiting on us to make the right decision.

Later, Art :-)